Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that Pep Guardiola was his ideal replacement at Manchester United

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he wanted Pep Guardiola to replace him at the helm of Old Trafford

Following 25 trophy laden years as manager of Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson decided to call it a day at the end of the 2012/13 Premier League campaign and it was clear to see at the time that whoever was coming in to replace the legendary Scotsman, had massive shoes to fill.

Eventually it was David Moyes who replaced Ferguson at United but evidently the move did not go according to plan as the Red Devils slipped to 7th place in the Premier League upon his arrival and the former Everton boss was duly shown the door by the club as a result.

Moyes not being able to succeed at United was seen as a failure on the part of Ferguson as well, as the 52-year old had allegedly been handpicked by the legendary manager to replace him at Old Trafford.

However, Ferguson has now gone on to reveal that Moyes actually was not his ‘Chosen One’ and that he initially wanted current Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola instead.

In his new book, Leading, Ferguson has gone on to reveal that he had a chat with Guardiola over the position at United after meeting up in New York during the Spaniard’s sabbatical from management but despite the advances of the Red Devils’ boss, he decided to choose Bayern instead.

Ferguson states, “I asked Pep to phone me before he accepted an offer from another club but he didn’t and wound up joining Bayern Munich in July 2013.”

Ferguson also adds that the United hierarchy had considered the likes of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Jurgen Klopp and Louis van Gaal as his immediate replacements but none of the targets were available at the time.

He continues, “When we started the process of looking for my replacement, we established that several very desirable candidates were unavailable.

“It became apparent that Jose Mourinho had given his word to Roman Abramovich that he would return to Chelsea and that Carlo Ancelotti would succeed him at Real Madrid.

“We also knew that Jurgen Klopp was happy at Borussia Dortmund and would be signing a new contract. Meantime, Louis van Gaal had undertaken to lead the Dutch attempt to win the 2014 World Cup.”